Guest Editor – Kailash Murarka Past President, AIPMA

Too many exhibitions to go to….what do I do? We all would have heard this, with an increased frequency lately. And this concern comes from both – exhibitors and visitors alike! What does it mean to event organisers like all of us? Do we need to believe that business is going to go down? Do we need to cut prices? Do we need to compromise quality? Not at all…all we need to do is to pull up our socks…still further. At the same time, we have to agree that exhibitors and visitors are extremely important ‘customers’ to us, isn’t it! So, we cannot ignore their concerns.

The only way forward is to address their concerns. What does that mean? Our customers are increasingly looking for ‘value’ to exhibit or to visit. We have to give them the best that we can. We all need to think like them, get down to details, micro manage activities and finally give them more than what they expect from us! No way are exhibitions losing their charm…just no way…they continue to be the lifeline of business and, thus, economy. Trust me, this will only increase. But from the organising side, only the fittest would survive. So, get down to your drawing board, be innovative and creative, raise your quality and give your customers an ‘Addictive Experience’. An event organizer is also an aggregator of services, a big change that we should do is to treat each one of our vendors as strategic partners and make them an integral part of our event and its success.

On the other side, may I take this opportunity to urge the governments (at the Centre and State) to realise that the exhibition industry is a big business enabler and has a significant role to play as regards to the GDP of a country. This has been proven world over. Most developed economies thrive on exhibitions; they infact encourage this sector to further up the ante. To take this industry further in India, it’s imperative that we have world-class infrastructure across major cities to suit varied requirements. We need to be on the world map as one of the best showcases of business. We do have a lot of ground to cover to achieve this end, but it is never to late. We have transformed airports, haven’t we; so why not exhibition areas? Continue to exhibit and help us, to help you to grow business.